Anyone With Experiences On A Nuvi 500 or 550?

[+AstroDav]

I have read in the forum where the Nuvi 500 & possibly the 550 will support Wherigo. But other than that, I've saw very little additional info on the topic. I am contemplating replacing my 200 with a higher-level Nuvi. I don't desire a handheld, like the Oregon or Colorado. There is also a whooping ONE Wherigo cache in this entire STATE....so I also don't really want to go to alot of expense or trouble to get that one. However, since I am about to upgrade & haven't yet decided to which model....only a Nuvi....might as well mark that 1 Wherigo off the list.

 

I would actually like to ge a 600 or 700 series Nuvi, but I can easily get by with a 500-series. So....2 questions.

 

#1 - Has anyone ever done a Wherigo on a 500 or 550 & does it work fairly good?

 

#2 - Will the 600 & 700 series do Wherigo, or is it for some-odd reason limited to only the "lesser" model 500?

 

And might as well throw in a third one too.

 

#3 - Are ALL 500's ready for Wherigo out of the box...or at the very least ready after installing some easily available & free additional software. If the latter, then same deal...are ALL 500's capable of using this other software.

 

Thanks in advance.

[+AstroDav]

Not a single person has?

[+obcjy]

Not a single person has?

 

I have a 500 and use some Where I GO apps such as Waypoint Averaging ect and it works fine.

Never used for a cache but sure it will work as the apps I use I think would perform the same.

[+AstroDav]

Thanks. I'm going to upgrade soon, but was just curious about the Wherigo/Nuvi 500 deal. I'd like to pick up at least a couple Wherigo's eventually.

[we4geo]

I bought a "Nuvi 550" some month ago and it's ok for car-navigation and most "standard" geocaches (traditionals & multis).

 

But for "Wherigo" it isn't usable at all:

In the last few days I tried 2 cardridges in my "homezone" (which work fine in the version for PocketPC-Users on these devices).

 

The first one

http://www.Wherigo.com/cartridge/details.a...f8-8be958e12251

allways crashes already during start (the nuvi 550 needs a hard-reset to get re-animated).

 

The second one

http://www.Wherigo.com/cartridge/details.a...5f-212244e3b12d

constantly crashes at station 2.

 

Even the garmin-demo-cardridge which was on the nuvi 550 by default (the one with the spaceship) hardly crashes near the end (while refueling the spaceship).

 

So garmin and/or Groundspeak did a very bad job on creating a stable Wherigo platform - especially on this device. It's a shame...

 

Greetz to all

Edited October 25, 2009 by we4geo

[+AstroDav]

I bought a "Nuvi 550" some month ago and it's ok for car-navigation and most "standard" geocaches (traditionals & multis).

 

But for "Wherigo" it isn't usable at all:

In the last few days I tried 2 cardridges in my "homezone" (which work fine in the version for PocketPC-Users on these devices).

 

The first one

http://www.Wherigo.com/cartridge/details.a...f8-8be958e12251

allways crashes already during start (the nuvi 550 needs a hard-reset to get re-animated).

 

The second one

http://www.Wherigo.com/cartridge/details.a...5f-212244e3b12d

constantly crashes at station 2.

 

Even the garmin-demo-cardridge which was on the nuvi 550 by default (the one with the spaceship) hardly crashes near the end (while refueling the spaceship).

 

So garmin and/or Groundspeak did a very bad job on creating a stable Wherigo platform - especially on this device. It's a shame...

 

Greetz to all

 

Well, I already spent the money I had planned to spend on the 500/550 on a new handheld Magellan....which is GREAT!! But I completely agree with the last sentence. Until it looks as if more effort is going to be put into making Wherigo accesible, user-friendly, stable, & just plain FUN.....I don't see it going very far as-is. And that truly IS a shame.

 

I was kinda afraid of that with the Nuvi....it being highly hit-and-miss on whether the cartridges actually worked on them or not. Glad I didn't waste money on one now, since Wherigo was 1 of the major reasons I was contemplating the purchase.

 

That's probaly one of the BIG reasons why there is only ONE Wherigo cache in this entire STATE!!

[+desert georangers]

I attempted my first Wherigo cache (GC1AHKR) with my new Nuvi 500. When I arrived at the first location, I got a message that I saw another geocacher, and would I ask him to join me. The only option was to say yes; when I did I could see the next location to go to, but the unit powered off. I made several attempts at this with the same result. I selected the Nuvi 500 as a secondary GPSr to use in the car and on my bike, but I also picked it for the Wherigo capability. I am disappointed and hope that it can be fixed. If anyone can share some insight regarding this, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Wherigo

Where did I go?

Not very far

[+redrox]

I attempted my first Wherigo cache (GC1AHKR) with my new Nuvi 500. When I arrived at the first location, I got a message that I saw another geocacher, and would I ask him to join me. The only option was to say yes; when I did I could see the next location to go to, but the unit powered off. I made several attempts at this with the same result. I selected the Nuvi 500 as a secondary GPSr to use in the car and on my bike, but I also picked it for the Wherigo capability. I am disappointed and hope that it can be fixed. If anyone can share some insight regarding this, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Wherigo

Where did I go?

Not very far

A couple of fellow Geocacher's and myself have the NUVI 500 and we use it for both car and for Caching, we however not attempted a Wherigo cache as of yet, but have planned too.

We have ALL had problems with the system shutting down. We have managed to pin it down to LONG CACHE NAMES!

Something with the memory....We have all called Garmin and mentioned this, it's in a lot of threads, but they play stupid like it's the first they have heard of it??? we love it otherwise!

Redrox

[+desert georangers]

I finally got my Wherigo player to work on my Nuvi 500. I found GC226D2, Where The Birds Go. It was a super simple one: 3 locations plus the final location. No characters, items, or tasks. Perhaps that's why it didn't crash the unit this time. I did a firmware update prior to this attempt, so maybe they fixed the problem, but I kind of doubt that; I think it was the simplicity of the cartridge. I wish I understood more about how it all works. I'll have to go back and try the others again that made it crash to find out.